


Settle Down

by Inkmage (Fallowsthorn)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Exhibitionism, F/M, Late Night Writing, Masturbation, Pacific Rim Kink Meme, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn, Rope Bondage, Shibari, slight genderfuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:12:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallowsthorn/pseuds/Inkmage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Both Mako and Raleigh need to blow off steam, after everything that's happened.  Mako suggests ropework; Raleigh can see her point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Settle Down

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt on the Pacific Rim Kink Meme: http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/350.html?thread=169822#t169822
> 
> Also written mostly with this captivating picture in mind (NSFW, sensual but not totally sexual): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TgsbEGnK_3g/TgxvAb98txI/AAAAAAAAAAw/jq7WdQmPmBE/s640/shibari+Kurodark.jpg
> 
> It's by Bottan on Dreamwidth; you can find more of their work here: http://bottan.dreamwidth.org/5388.html
> 
> Thanks to n-r for the reference info!
> 
> Mostly I did this because today is/was my Friday, and I wanted to write something without a lot of continuity. This is my first time writing these characters, and the porn does not exist for any reason other than that it is porn. You have been warned; if you have standards (of any sort, really), please turn off at the next exit.
> 
> Everyone else, let's get the entertainment-based spectacle on the asphalt-constructed multi-purpose transportation venue.

They can both feel it, a month after The Breach.

That's what everyone's calling it now. It's not a place anymore, not something they're desperately watching - it's an event. It's _did you hear about The Breach_ and _two brave lives lost at The Breach, but countless saved_ and _The Breach, The Breach, The Breach._

Raleigh is fucking sick of The Breach.

Mako is too, although not in so many words. They both sit quietly and go through the appropriate motions, accept the appropriate rewards with the appropriate amount of grace, and head back to their appropriate rooms at the end of it all grinding their teeth and wanting to be left alone.

 _We just fell,_ Raleigh wants to say, to scream, to blurt out in the talk show hosts' faces. _All we did was fall_.

So by the time a month has gone by, both Raleigh and Mako are, to put it mildly, on edge. Both of them snap and snarl at the slightest provocation; Raleigh gets in a few scuffles with anyone who mildly points out that they do indeed deserve all of this praise, and Mako bristles and makes life difficult for anyone who dares suggest things aren't perfectly normal.

Given the last, oh, fifteen to twenty years, this results in both of them running afoul of most of the rest of the Shatterdome. It's not a pretty month.

And then at some point, Raleigh can't remember when, Tendo sees them both in the mess, in their own little people-less island of space, and casually strolls up to them. He claps Raleigh on the shoulder and stage-whispers conspiratorially to Mako, "Look, the rest of us are getting tired of this, okay? Could you settle him down for us?"

And Raleigh doesn't know if Tendo had some kind of clairvoyance that alerted him to exactly the right thing to say, but later he (and several others, though they don't know why) will swear up and down that it is a goddamn miracle.

* * *

Which is, give or take some egocentric bias, more or less what Mako says when she explains why Raleigh needs to take off all his clothing and let her tie him up.

He, of course, looks at her as though she's drift-sick, even though he kind of knows what she means. Mako has no such compunctions.

"I saw it in the drift as well as you did," she tells him, gesturing with the hand that's holding the coiled rope and yeah, she's right. "You're too... keyed up. Too active."  She purses her lips.  "You can explain it to yourself better than I can."

And yeah. She's right. And yeah, this is actually a really good way to solve both of their problems; he needs something to force him to calm down, and she needs a single task to focus on, no matter how much time it takes.

(What Raleigh conveniently leaves out of his own rationalization is that when they were in the drift, he'd seen flashes of what Mako had done before. And damn if he doesn't want to see himself like that.)

"Strip," Mako says again, and this time, Raleigh does. He folds his clothes up neat and out of the way, and stands in front of Mako naked. She's seen him like this before, in the drift and in a few badly-coordinated door mishaps. It's not the same, he knows, and there's no shame in the way her eyes trail down his body, evaluating him both as a canvas and as a well-built man in his prime. Raleigh feels a flutter of arousal at her approval, and doesn't bother trying to hide it. She'd know soon enough anyway; and being aroused by a beautiful woman staring at him naked is not really something that's high on Raleigh's 'Things to Be Ashamed Of' list.

Mako nods to herself and drops most of the rope on the floor, keeping a coil or two in her hands to work with. She takes a step forward and Raleigh kneels without being told. It's a remnant of the drift that all pilots have to deal with; to some degree the connection doesn't ever really close.

He likes it. It means he can trust Mako, the way he hasn't trusted anyone in over a year. It means that if he's hurt or afraid, she will know it, and rather than misjudging or mocking, she will help him, and he will do the same for her.

Mako's hand touches his shoulder, and Raleigh exhales deeply, shoulders shuddering as he lets go of the tension in them. She traces her fingers across the line of his shoulder blades, and he rolls his neck, feeling the last few weeks slough off. It's already a heady feeling.

He feels Mako smile in amusement behind him, and start to loop the rope around his chest. At first, Raleigh tries to follow what she's doing, see the way the knots come together. He might learn something, and he would need to know how to undo it quickly if - if - if something -

Mako holds the rope she's working with in one hand, and threads the fingers of the other through Raleigh's hair. "Shh," she says. "Relax."

And, almost by magic, Raleigh does. Some part of him just goes still, and clicks into place, and he takes a deep breath and smiles, for the first time in what has to be two weeks. Because he _trusts_ Mako. This will be perfect, and nothing bad will happen, because Mako can handle it if it does.

All Raleigh has to do is sit quietly and enjoy the rare silence. He can forget fighting kaiju, and he can forget the Jaeger - (no you can't, Mako's voice laughs in his head, and he smiles ruefully) - and he can forget the end of the world and just. Just. Breathe.

He doesn't know how long it takes Mako to finish with the ropes. He's not aware of a lot - the world seems slightly fuzzy, out-of-focus, as though Raleigh is floating just above it, kept aloft by surface tension.

Hey, maybe he should write that down.

Nah.

Wait, did he say that out loud?

Mako's laughter, hastily stifled, tells him he did, and he grins too. Part of him recognizes that this is endorphins, but most of him doesn't care.

The laughter from the blue-haired pixie in front of him balloons into a warm smile. "Come on," she says, and tugs him to his feet. He can stand and walk comfortably, which is something of a surprise.

"There's nothing to anchor it to," Mako tells him. "And I want you to see this."

They walk in front of the biggest mirror in the room, and Raleigh just stops. He looks - it sounds narcissistic, but he looks _gorgeous_. The red rope pulls at his skin just tight enough to feel, and the way it rises to his shoulders and dives down his chest - and down his back, too, when he turns - is nothing short of provocative.

"Thank you," he whispers, hoarse from awe. He's sure he said it out loud because Mako beams and touches the rope on one shoulder, although come to think of it, he might not have needed to.

Raleigh brings a hand up to touch the rope that's pulled tight over his sternum, and the sensation makes him realize, very suddenly, that he's hard.

Partly, it's hilarious. He was so zoned out on endorphins and whatever the fuck this is that he literally didn't notice himself slowly getting closer to orgasm. Mako has to have noticed, though, and Raleigh turns to her with an open mouth, unsure how to phrase this in a way that isn't awkward. There probably isn't one.

She could gloss over it, with the freaky mind-meld thing, respond to what he means instead of what he says. She doesn't, though, so Raleigh finally blurts out, "I don't know why I'm like this. It's like this. What the fuck."

Then he shuts up quickly, and tries to start over. "I mean - this is super weird because you were trying to do something really nice for both of us and I went and-" Nope, there's no way that'll end well.

Raleigh wishes she would tie his mouth shut, or gag him or something, and ohh that's a mental picture that is not helpful at all _thank you very much._ "Well - what I mean is -" He stops again, and shuts his eyes, and remembers that he trusts Mako with, quite literally, everything he is.

Then he opens them and says, "What I mean is, thank you. Again. Because this is an incredible gift, that you're doing this for me, and the part where it's kind of turning me on is beside the point. I - I'd like to keep the rope on for a while, but if, uh..." The words fall apart - he can't quite bring himself to say, _But if you let me do that, I'll probably end up jacking off in this getup and I'm not sure if you really want that._

Mako hasn't lost her quiet smile throughout all of this, which Raleigh tentatively takes as a good sign. "And thank you for letting me do this to you," she says, just as superficially solemn. "Because that is a gift as well. And...." she tilts her head, and Raleigh returns her courtesy, waits for her to say what she means. "If you do keep my rope, I want to see you in it for a while." Translation: _I'm pretty sure I really do._

And, god, the thought of her watching him - of himself entangled in Mako's rope, held and bound by her even without her touching him - that's enough to send Raleigh sliding the rest of the way into heat and lust. His cock jumps and he lowers himself to the floor, spreading his legs and bracing his weight on his heels, one hand to the side to steady himself.

The other goes to his cock, and right before he touches himself, he glances up at Mako. It's that glance that turns this from a slightly awkward quickie into what Raleigh's pretty sure is a really great idea.

Mako is seated on Raleigh's bed, watching him avidly. He's pretty sure she didn't put her hands in her lap entirely on purpose, but now it lets him draw on the knowledge from the drift, pulling from it what he needs. He does set his hand on his cock, but instead of wrapping his fingers around the shaft, he presses down at the base, trying to approximate what Mako does when she masturbates.

It's confusing and a little bit of a mindfuck, as Raleigh deals with memories of one set of genitals and playing with the other, but it's totally worth it for the way Mako draws in a short, hitching breath when she figures it out.

He shuts his eyes and chases the rabbit as much as he can outside of a jaeger, diving deep into arousal and memories. He presses his hand down and bucks against it, drawing up and discarding memories and fantasies alike at random, anonymous lovers and strange amalgamations of both of their preferences. Kaiju, jaegers, dead friends and living ones, it doesn't matter now even if it will later.

But always, always, Raleigh comes back to the rope that's tight against him, pressing lines of red heat into his skin, bright and burning. It's been a long time since Raleigh has come, and even longer from anything more than sensation alone, so that's what he focuses on now: the rope chafing against his muscles, the press of it keeping him within parameters. He arches his back and finds that he can't stretch his spine all the way, breathes deep to realize that doing so meets more resistance than he'd thought.

He hovers at the edge of orgasm, never quite reaching it, the thought or feeling always frustratingly slipping away just as he gets close. He opens his eyes to appeal to Mako - for what, he doesn't know - and the first thing he sees is himself in the mirror.

He's a wreck. His cheeks are flushed and his mouth is open. He can see his chest heaving as he shudders through breath after breath, can feel the red lines the ropes have left behind as they've shifted.

He loves it. He _wants_ it, and he loves it.

Just as he sees himself, Mako thunders into him, claims him and the marks alike with possessive glee. Raleigh tips over the edge and comes with a cry of relief and shock-threaded lust. His world vanishes and narrows into the link, and he can vaguely hear Mako gasp as his orgasm floods into her as well, and she gives herself over to pleasure.

When Raleigh's aware of the world again, Mako is still sitting on his bed, looking a little dazed, or maybe drunk. Raleigh's pretty sure he has the same look on his face, too, and decides against wandering around for the next few hours.

Sooner or later they'll have to talk about this, but they have the drift on their side. Nothing can really be that difficult, anymore.


End file.
